1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to implements for preparing the soil and, more particularly, to an implement and method for improving and maintaining dirt arena footing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At equine events it is important that the underlying soil upon which the horses perform is prepared properly. A powdered mixture of loosened soil several inches thick is desired with the underlying base of the soil being relatively smooth without any form of a ridged profile. In this manner, the animal may have a firm footing, especially in cases where it's desirable for a horse to stop, slide, spin, and/or turn. Otherwise, serious injury can result to the animal's hoofs or tendons. As horse breeders select longer and thinner legs as preferable traits in equine animals and the direct correlation between firm footing and performance is better understood, this problem has become one of urgent focus.
Some tow-behind implements and methods have been provided for preparing the ground, but arena drags heretofore available use some form of loosening teeth to attempt to soften the arena floor. These prior implements include perpendicular spring-loaded shovels, S tines, chain harrow teeth, ripping or scarifying teeth, and grooming rods, all of which leave potentially injurious ridges in the footing material and/or base. Additionally, to accomplish the desired result, numerous passes over the same path using different corresponding tools may be necessary. This can take significant amounts of time before obtaining optimal footing.
It also has been observed that prior soil loosening apparatus and methods for the purposes set forth above work the soil from the top-down. Inasmuch as the depth of the soil worked cannot always be determined using top-down methods, soil grade depths that are preferably left undisturbed are, instead, often violated. When using previous soil working implements, the scarifying members as ripping teeth, for example, not only leave deep rooted ridges in the underlying base of the soil, which provides an uneven surface having the capacity to injure, but devices that work the soil from the top down fail to sufficiently flocculate the desired amount of powdered mixture of soil for forming a thick cushion on top of the base.
Thus, there remains a need for a new soil working implement and method for optimally preparing and maintaining the footing material of a dirt arena. The present invention is directed toward meeting this need.